“New customers are the lifeblood of any business…”
Right?
Well, sure. But that’s only part of the story. Because if you are ONLY focused on getting new customers, and making that first sale… You’re leaving a TON of money on the table.
And, in fact, you’re making it a lot harder on yourself.
Because if you have competitors in your business who are continuing to sell to their customers over and over and over again, while you try to squeeze profits out of the first sale…
Here’s what happens…
Your competitors are able to spend more on media. Which means they show up to your customers earlier, and bigger. They get more attention. So they get more customers. Their revenue and profits go up.
And you’re left feeling like the mutt begging for table scraps.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
In fact, there are rather simple, effective ways to generate more value from every customer…
That’s what I’ll share with you in a moment.
Remember: today is Mailbox Monday. The weekly issue of Breakthrough Marketing Secrets where I open up my mailbox to answer YOUR questions.
My mailbox is admittedly bursting, but if you’d like to shove another question in it, fill out this quick questionnaire.
Here’s today’s question…
—
Roy,
My biggest challenge right now is figuring out how to using marketing to connect to my clients to generate ongoing business (long-term) clients.
Could you please share how to use copywriting, marketing, and other tools you recommend to connect to clients, meet their needs, to generate recurring income?
Thanks,
W
—
Let me present this in the simplest, most direct way possible…
>> MAKE MORE OFFERS!
I know CAPS means I’m YELLING. And that’s why I used them!
If you break down this entire process, it’s all going to come down to this.
Be in constant communication with your prospects.
Communicate with them after their first purchase. Then, keep communicating with them, until they tell you to stop.
All along the way, you’ll be doing two things. First, you’ll be making sure you continue to deliver value. (This is how you get them to keep paying attention to you.)
And second, you’ll be making more offers. (This is how you make sales.)
I’ll drop this note here:
— My training on The Value-First Funnel Strategy is all about how to use education-based marketing to get and keep your market’s attention — which will also keep your past customers engaged.
— My training on The Most Valuable Customer Strategy discusses the different offers and conversions that apply at the 11 main points in the customers lifecycle, and shows how to optimize each step to create your Most Valuable Customer.
(And both are included in the BTMSinsiders All-Access Pass.)
How to sell more, from day one (actually, day ZERO)…
In most competitive markets, the upsell is actually more important than the first sale.
Take infomercials. The old wisdom was that to make a product work on infomercials, you needed to have 5X-10X markup on the product. Meaning, for every $1 you spent on the product, you had to sell it for at least $5, and preferably $10. Today, that holds true, but you also have to have a phone team that’s competent in keeping the customers on the line for 2, 3, 5, even 7 or 8 more offers. And if you try to make the economics of media buying for infomercials work without that, you’re going to go broke.
Online advertising is very much the same. If you’re advertising in most of the ad networks, the people you’re up against have 2, 3, or more upsells they’re showing every customer who buys offer 1. Which means that the economics of their media buying — how much they’re willing to spend — is heavily tilted toward marketers who have these upsells in place.
So my first recommendation — no matter WHAT market you’re in — is to consider the very first transaction.
What else does your customer still need after that first transaction? What’s their unmet desire? What else can you add as an upsell or premium package or additional piece of support, beyond your initial offer?
(Internet marketers call this first day “Day Zero” — and the holy grail of an offer to cold traffic is to turn a profit on Day Zero, at scale.)
When someone is buying from you the very first time, they’re are at their hottest as a customer. They may still be interested in you for years in the future, and willing to continue buying. But in order to maximize customer value, you MUST consider what else you can offer on the very first day.
Test offers. According to direct marketing wisdom, offers contribute to 40% of the success, the audience contributes to 40% of the success, and creative contributes to 20% of the success. For immediate upsells, your audience is great. They’re recent buyers, the best audience. So test offers, to find what people are most interested in buying next. Once you find the best offer, test creative.
How to sell more into the future: the welcome sequence…
The next thing you should consider is your customer’s first few weeks with your business.
The excitement of the first purchase is still there. They’re still very keen on you.
Lean into that. Make sure they’re getting value out of that first purchase. And, at the same time, show them how you can give them even more value — aka., make offers!
Through initial testing in the Day Zero approach above, you will figure out the rough order of offers your new customers are most interested in.
For customers who don’t take you up on those on the first try, keep promoting them.
Make a big deal out of welcoming your new customers. Deliver as much value as possible through value-first marketing. Communicate often, making their needs, wants, and desires a priority. And as part of that communication, make sure you are also including offers for additional resources.
Consider this honeymoon period. When customers are newest and most excited about you. It’s also a great opportunity to really make sure you’re cementing the relationship. Both in value you deliver without a commercial transaction attached, AND in the opportunities you give for them to go deeper through investing in your other products and services.
How to sell more into the future: ongoing communication…
There is almost nothing more powerful in sales than being present.
You can get better at selling, sure. But if you’re simply present, with an offer, you’re going to close some decent amount of sales.
Back when I sold IT training, I’d follow up with prospects dozens of times, just to stay on their radar. I’d always focus on being as warm and helpful as possible — avoiding being a pest. And it worked. Sometimes, after dozens of contacts, I’d get a $30,000 purchase order coming off the fax machine.
No hard sell. No “always-be-closing.” Just being there.
The way to automate and scale this is with a newsletter. I don’t know what this is for your business — whether it’s print, email, or both.
Print has some HUGE advantages. But email is easy, affordable, fast, global, and the bare minimum.
Put out a newsletter. At least monthly. More often if you can. Daily or weekly is ideal in many markets. Again, make it about value-first marketing.
Your goal is to be a constant helpful, authoritative presence in your prospect’s world. Your goal is to give them value that demonstrates your expertise, and establishes you as the preeminent leader in your industry, at solving the problems your prospects face.
Find ways to help them. Help them understand the nature of their challenges. Why they are so difficult (and it’s not the prospect’s fault). Help them understand the solutions available. Help them establish buying criteria for preferred solutions. And help them see why they should choose you.
This is the kind of content you can put out on a regular basis. And as long as someone is still a prospect in your niche, they’re going to love you for it.
And then, make offers. Put offers in the newsletter. Create special offers for the newsletter. Simply keep pointing your prospects to the offers.
How to sell more into the future: recurring income…
I do believe that every business should consider how to deliver ongoing value to their most-engaged customers. These are the customers who will happily keep giving you money, if you have something for them to buy. And in every customer base, there are quite a few.
But the question you need to answer is NOT, “How do I keep taking money from them?”
Rather, it’s, “How can I continue to deliver value?”
What can you do that will make your prospects want to keep doing business with you? What ongoing product or service can you provide that will give them, that will continue to bring value to their life?
The more value you can deliver, the more likely it is you’ll have prospects really stick…
Once you’ve established what offer you have, the actual promotion is easy. Show them, through the ongoing communications laid out above, what value the subscription or continuity offer will deliver.
You can put it in your Day Zero funnel. You can put it in the welcome sequence. You can put it in the newsletter that goes out to all past customers (and maybe prospects).
The big key is: find out how to continue delivering value…
I’ll beat this up some more…
Find out what your customers want and need. What problems or challenges do they need help with? What is that value they desire? Not just in the first purchase, but in the months and years that follow.
Find a way to solve their problems and help them overcome the challenges. Package that into offers. And make the offers.
Communicate early and often, what that value is, and how you help.
There’s a lot more to it, in the training linked throughout this article. But at its core, the principles that will lead to breakthroughs really are that simple.
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
ARTICLE LINKS:
— The Value-First Funnel Strategy
— The Most Valuable Customer Strategy
— BTMSinsiders All-Access Pass
